Head Lice Facts and Information
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 What are Head Lice?
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| Other Important Lice Facts
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| What are Eggs and Nits?
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| The Head Lice Life Cycle
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| Symptoms of Head Lice
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Head lice can happen to anyone. In fact, lice actually prefer to live on clean heads, and affect millions of children per year. Head lice are nothing to be embarrassed about, and the more educated you are about lice, the better equipped you'll be to handle a lice infestation of your home and family.
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While head lice infestations can occur at any time, they are most prevalent when children return to school from summer and winter breaks, and are usually detected by the school nurse. The nurse should send your child home with a note and he/she will likely be excused from school until the lice have been eliminated so as to prevent the spread of lice.
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Head lice are tiny, wingless insects that are usually found living on clean human heads. Like mosquitoes, head lice suck blood to nourish themselves.
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Head lice cannot fly or jump from one human to the next. Most infestations occur when children have head-to-head contact with one another, or when sharing brushes, baseball caps, sports helmets, clothing, and other personal items.
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Head lice cannot survive on animals other than humans, so disregard the idea that a neighbor's cat or dog may have caused your child's infestation.
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Female lice lay eggs that are the size of a poppy
seed and are difficult to see because their color blends in with the child's
hair. The lice eggs are attached to the hair near the root with a glue-like,
waterproof substance and can't be washed or blown away.
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The empty eggshells that remain when lice hatch
are called nits, and are commonly confused with dandruff, flakes of hair sprays
and gels, or sand. A fine-toothed comb must be used for the removal of both
lice eggs and nits.
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As hair grows, nits are usually found further from the root of the hair than the eggs, and they can vary in color from white to a yellow-brown.
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Many schools have a "No Nit Policy" stating that all nits must be removed from
the head of an infested child before he or she will be permitted to return to
school, so it's extremely important that nit and lice egg removal be part of
the lice elimination process.
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Eggs: The females lay eggs with a special glue that attaches them to the hair shaft at the root. They hatch approximately 10 days later.
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Nymphs: When it hatches, a louse is barely visible to the human eye and cannot yet reproduce because it is not yet fully developed. This stage is the nymph stage and lasts for about 12 days.
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Adults: Lasting about 28 days, the adult stage is when the lice are fully developed and reproducing. They can lay 4-10 eggs a day.
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Scratching, particularly behind the ears or at
the nape of the neck, is the most common symptom of head lice and should alert
you to check your child. It's also advisable to do a check whenever you know
of a lice outbreak in your child's school.
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